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David Rohde of The New York Times has escaped from his Taliban captors after being held for seven months in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan - Source: Reuters
A New York Times reporter has escaped from his Taliban captors
after being held for seven months in the mountains of Afghanistan
and Pakistan, the newspaper reported on its website.
David Rohde, together with a local reporter, Tahir Ludin, and their
driver, Asadullah Mangal, were abducted on November 10 outside
Kabul.
The newspaper, quoting Rohde's wife Kristen Mulvihill, said Rohde
and Ludin late Friday climbed over a wall of the compound where
they were being held in North Waziristan in Pakistan.
Mangal did not escape with them, it said.
The two men found a Pakistani army scout who took them to an army
base and on Saturday they were flown to the US Bagram military base
in Afghanistan, it said.
In a statement, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was
pleased that Rohde's ordeal had ended.
"I would like to thank the governments of Pakistan and
Afghanistan for their assistance in ensuring his safe return," she
said without elaborating.
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller said the newspaper had
kept quiet about the kidnapping in order to avoid increasing the
danger to the men.
He declined to discuss efforts to win their release but said no
ransom was paid and no Taliban or other prisoners were released,
the paper said.
Rhode, 41, had been in Afghanistan working on a book.
